Posted By Jonathan Mark
Route 17: Obama Through Arab Eyes
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For months we've been listening to commentators speculating about how Barack Obama's is "good for Israel," or "good for the Arabs." A problem, though, is that this debate has been almost entirely filtered through non-Arab voices. We thought it might be interesting to look at what Arab-Americans have been saying within the confines of Arab media.
The first item is excerpted from a piece in Lebanon's relatively moderate Beirut Daily Star (Jan. 8), "Whom Should Arab-Americans Vote For," by Arab-American commentator Ghassa Rubeiz. The second item is from The Electronic Intifadah, "How Barack Obama Learned To Love Israel," by Ali Abunimah, who lives in Obama's state senate district in Illinois.
This latter piece is more dated (March 4, 2007) but it is nevertheless revealing how a sophisticated online Palestinian political magazine -- as vehemently anti-Israel as its name, Electronic Intifadah, would have you believe-anticipated Obama's candidacy. The writer, Abunimah, is co-founder of The Electronic Intifadah.
If it needs to be said, readers should keep in mind that these commentaries do not represent all Arab-Americans anymore than Jewish columnists represent all Jews, but they wouldn't have the outlets they do if they represented no one at all. Over the course of the campaign we'll try to keep our eyes open for other Arab commentaries on the candidates.
The Beirut Daily Star: "When compared to Senators Hillary Clinton and John Edwards, the two rival front runners on the Democratic side, Obama looks better [from the Arab perspective] on issues of justice in the Middle East. However, one has to be realistic: Arab-Americans, and Arabs in general, do not have many close friends among popular American politicians. Israeli policy experts rate Obama as a moderate supporter of Israel and they place Edwards and Clinton significantly ahead of the Illinois senator in sensitivity to the needs of the Jewish state.
"Obama knows relatively little about the suffering of the Palestinians and their need for a viable state. But when he is in the White House he would be in a better position to place the US in the position of honest broker in the peace process.
Among the candidates, "there is more variety of opinion on Iraq than there is on the Palestinian question. The reason is that Israel has won the public relations battle over the Arab-Israeli conflict. But public sentiments may change in America with new evidence and a new president."
Arab-Americans "should not expect a radical change in American foreign policy in the Middle East, regardless of who wins the 2008 elections. However, if Barack Obama wins, there is hope that he will be more open on the matter of Middle East justice than other front-runners in the presidential race. The Obama factor includes many advantages: an international perspective, compassion for minorities, and sensitivity to issues of health care, poverty, and climate change. And finally, Obama has a vision for serious change in domestic and foreign policy."
Electronic Intifadah: Abunimah noted that Obama promised AIPAC to fund work on the Arrow and related missile systems to help Israel "deter missile attacks from as far as Tehran and as close as Gaza," said Obama.
Disparaging the fear that Obama was addressing, Abunimah writes: "As if the starved, besieged and traumatized population of Gaza are about to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles."
[What the writer doesn't say, of course, is that at the time Abunimah was writing his column, more than 3,000 Qassam rockets had already been into Israel from Gaza; rockets that precipitated Israel's recent military action, even if the rockets weren't ballistic.]
Abunimah adds, "While constantly emphasizing his concern about the threat Israelis face from Palestinians, Obama said nothing about the exponentially more lethal threat Israelis present to Palestinians." Obama had said that Hezbollah launched thousands of rockets in an unprovoked attack, "but it's a complete distortion. Throughout his speech he showed a worrying propensity to present discredited [Israeli] propaganda as fact."
Over the years, writes Abunimah, "I met [Obama] about half a dozen times, often at Palestinian and Arab-American community events in Chicago, including a May 1998 community fundraiser at which Edward Said was the keynote speaker. In 2000, when Obama unsuccessfully ran for Congress I heard him speak at a campaign fundraiser hosted by a University of Chicago professor. On that occasion and others Obama was forthright in his criticism of U.S. policy and his call for an even-handed approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
"The last time I spoke to Obama was in the winter of 2004 at a gathering in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. He was in the midst of a primary campaign to secure the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate seat he now occupies. But at that time polls showed him trailing. As he came in from the cold and took off his coat, I went up to greet him. He responded warmly, and volunteered, 'Hey, I'm sorry I haven't said more about Palestine right now, but we are in a tough primary race. I'm hoping when things calm down I can be more up front.' He referred to my activism, including columns I was contributing to The Chicago Tribune [that were] critical of Israeli and U.S. policy [and said], 'Keep up the good work!'
"But Obama's gradual shift into the AIPAC camp had begun as early as 2002 as he planned his move from small time Illinois politics to the national scene..... If disappointing, given his historically close relations to Palestinian-Americans, Obama's about-face is not surprising. He is merely doing what he thinks is necessary to get elected and he will continue doing it as long as it keeps him in power."